EV running costs starting to look expensive?

[Jason71]

I'm getting around 3 miles per KWH on my M3 and the electricity provider is now charging me 30p per KWH (up more than 50% from when I bought the car), which translates to about 10p per mile.

The tyres are pretty good, but wear fairly quickly, and you are talking ballpark £1k worth of tyre for every 10k miles, or 10p a mile. So all in, 20p per mile (forgetting brakes, suspension wear and tear and that type of thing which will come down the line at some point)

At £7.50 a gallon diesel right now, a 60mpg car costs 12.5p per mile and tyre wear will be dependant on the car of course, but around 5p per mile on previous cars I've had. So thats 17.5p per mile and for every 10k miles, you should really be changing oil and filters (forget that long life 20k miles oil, 10k max in my book) so about £250 for every 10k miles, which brings it to 20p per mile, which is pretty much what my M3 costs me per mile.

So green/carbon footprint aside, its not as cost effective as it was when I initially bought the car. I'm sort of thinking I should maybe cash in my M3 while prices are high, and get a diesel again. My initial plan was a MY (was hoping a SR version would eventually come out) but when you look at running costs and purchase price, that 50+% increase in electric has switched the maths quite a bit.

Like many of us no doubt, it was these sort of man maths that helped me buy the M3 to begin with but those maths don't work like they used to. There is a hefty premium to buy an EV but over the long term, you get that back, and then some. Well, that used to be the case. Its not quite so simple now.

Anyone else having similar thoughts about EV running costs and considering going back to fossil fuels? I'm talking from a pure financial perspective, rather than the obvious rabbit hole of climate change, emissions etc

I assume you are not a company car driver? no man maths required to make an EV work then on 2% BiK.

That aside one of the biggest costs with a newish car is depreciation. As autotrader said last month 25-30 % of views/enquires at present on their site are for EV's which account for 4% of the cars on their site (2%BEV, 2%PHEV). So if you switch to a diesel can you pop back in 3 years and let us know how that worked out for you depreciation wise please and how much you have spend on ULEZ's in that period. My money will be on the EV for the win

 

[Adopado]

Anyone else having similar thoughts about EV running costs and considering going back to fossil fuels? I'm talking from a pure financial perspective, rather than the obvious rabbit hole of climate change, emissions etc

Well, no! Lifetime consumption is better that 4 miles per kWh (low percentage of motorway miles). Maybe 1.5 to 2p per mile. I'm still on a great tariff that will change in October but I don't see it being more than petrol or diesel. I saved £200 in the space of 3 weeks (1500 miles) just in fuel last month. Car 2 years and 7 months and spent zero on SC maintenance so far. Spent zero on road tax. I have a set of winter tyres but haven't any tyre costs since buying them (£609.92) so don't expect they will increase my overall trye costs in the long run as I'm not wearing out the summer tyres as fast. Comparing costs of a similar ICE car in respect of size and performance there is no competition. I enjoy driving the car and it has proven to me that EV is a great option.

 

[pgkevet]

You guys also forget the non-warranty repair costs such as when mine got nibbled by rodents, the Tesla cost if you ask to have alignment checked or the brakes properly serviced or for those unfortunates waiting weeks for new windscreen. No cheap electricity or smart meters here either but 25K miles and still tread on the original 2 tyres although the others ended up being replaced due to excessive punctures. Then there's the cost of the home charger, the electric ratmat and the rodent bait boxes...

 

[maigrait]

I live in NI and use economy 7 to charge my EVs. I just swapped to SSE and get 7 hours of 'cheaper' electricity - around 11p kwh. In the day its slightly more 19p kwh. I have no idea why you are paying 30p but you need to swap.

I have solar panels + battery so I can minimise the daily rate but still - you need to shop around and potentially change to economy 7 if the maths work out better....

 

[GRiLLA]

I should have added that I live in NI - we don't have Octopus go or anything like that. That would absolutely change the numbers for sure - 30p is x4 times Octopus go that you guys are getting so I'm paying quadruple what you guys are paying. Thats significant lol!

There are still deals that you can get that will allow you to charge at less than half what you seem to be paying Electric Car Tariffs NI | Green Electricity |Power NI

 

[Lord Farquad]

I'm stuck on the standard rate for the Foreseeable. As @PITA points out without a smart meter you have no chance of getting an EV/off peak tariff.

I have a smart meter fitted, but it cannot get a WAN connection, something about the network they use in the North of England to send meter readings not strong enough to get a signal in my specific location and no plans (as far as I can decipher from the hours I have spent asking) to fix the issue.

I had this issue off Octopus, with no ETA for a fix. Then out the blue one day it was working and I was on GO within 3 days. Keep checking.

 

[WannabeOwner]

Its hard to figure out used prices at the moment as they are all over the place Used BMW X5 prices have went through the roof, same for the likes of VW Tiguan and cars like that

I think those were pandemic side-effects. The automotive companies cancelled their Chip Supply contracts ... the chip makers switched to producing stuff for the massive uptick in computers as everyone working from home got kitted out. And then when Automotive wanted to resume their suppliers had switched to latest nanometre tech and were reluctant to have to go back to the old-tech Automotive wanted.

So limited supply of chips, and therefore new cars,, and plenty of demand; new vehicle delivery times increased and 2nd hand prices went ridiculous.

Well before all that I sold my MS. That had a sticker-price in the same league as "Luxury" Executive BMWs etc. where "drive it out of the showroom and it has depreciated to worthless". In 2019 I got 50% trade-in for that at 3.5 years and 95K miles. Happy with that!

I think EV residuals will remain strong. Every year demand increases, so the number sold new today will be less than the 2nd-hand demand in 3 years time.

 

[Peter 224]

My ICE car with a similar performance to my M3 LR costs me, based on 5000 miles per year, £0.80/mile.
The Tesla, based on 9000 miles a year and charging using Octopus Go for 66% of charging, costs me about £0.11/mile.

Yes, there are some very economical ICE cars, but nothing like the M3's performance, comfort and space.

 

[The_Cable_Guy]

I assume you are not a company car driver? no man maths required to make an EV work then on 2% BiK.

That aside one of the biggest costs with a newish car is depreciation. As autotrader said last month 25-30 % of views/enquires at present on their site are for EV's which account for 4% of the cars on their site (2%BEV, 2%PHEV). So if you switch to a diesel can you pop back in 3 years and let us know how that worked out for you depreciation wise please and how much you have spend on ULEZ's in that period. My money will be on the EV for the win

As above, no brainer for me, saves me a fortune.

 

[paulbt38]

I should have added that I live in NI - we don't have Octopus go or anything like that. That would absolutely change the numbers for sure - 30p is x4 times Octopus go that you guys are getting so I'm paying quadruple what you guys are paying. Thats significant lol!

I too love in NI and took delivery of my M3 in December. PowerNI have an ev tariff which I switched to. Currently about 12p per unit for 7 hours a night. 3 miles per KW is fairly poor so you must be hammering it. I’m finding it difficult to get below 4 miles per KW.

Don’t forget most of our public chargers are also still free to use.

 

[Mr H]

Driving a Tesla is just so much more relaxing. I'm currently in Spain and have a Citroen C3 (one of those stupid ones with bubble wrap glued to the doors) for the duration. It's quiet, comfortable and well put together but it wouldn't pull the skin off a rice pudding, i have to use both legs to drive the damn thing, the cruise control would happily plough into the car in front and it drinks like a fish.

It's hot here and you want the aircon running as soon as you get in, but oh no no Sir has to wait until the bloody computers fire up which is like waiting for windows 95 before the blowers start as it's all through the touchscreen.

It's done 5000 miles so is now probably worth a fiver and it has no middle armrest but Apple Carplay works well although it does disappear when you want to change temp. I miss my MY...

 

[DoricJim]

I'm also very much in the saving me a fortune camp. Have a M3LR and am easily averaging over 4 m/KW at the moment and with some motorway driving at 65mph as well (100 mile trip at the weekend with mixed driving averaged 220 wh/mile). On Octopus I/O so works out at less than 2p per mile (7.5p per KW). Plus on my weekend trip we stopped at a hotel with a Tesla destination charger - the whole 100 miles costing me about 3 KW in net power or 30p.

I sold my BMW 320d xDrive that averaged a pretty decent 48 mpg average so about 16p per mile at current diesel costs. Plus almost £500 per year in road tax (retailed over £40k when new) + £3-400 per year in services. Running costs have gone from about £3k per year for around 10k miles to £600 for Tesla (including tyre wear estimate).

Going back to ICE makes no sense to me at all now...

 

[munkypuzel]

Haven't done too many sums, but..... if ICE became the same to run as MY I wouldn't change back. If ICE was slightly cheaper to run, I wouldn't change back.

I would pay a premium for an EV at the moment as it has invigorated my love of cars again, just not sure how much...

 

[Dilly]

Driving a Tesla is just so much more relaxing. I'm currently in Spain and have a Citroen C3 (one of those stupid ones with bubble wrap glued to the doors) for the duration. It's quiet, comfortable and well put together but it wouldn't pull the skin off a rice pudding, i have to use both legs to drive the damn thing, the cruise control would happily plough into the car in front and it drinks like a fish.

It's hot here and you want the aircon running as soon as you get in, but oh no no Sir has to wait until the bloody computers fire up which is like waiting for windows 95 before the blowers start as it's all through the touchscreen.

It's done 5000 miles so is now probably worth a fiver and it has no middle armrest but Apple Carplay works well although it does disappear when you want to change temp. I miss my MY...

I went to Spain once. Hired a Corsa with less brakes than a 1930’s bicycle. Complained and just got that ‘mañana‘ shrug!

 

[dhrivnak]

I'm getting around 3 miles per KWH on my M3 and the electricity provider is now charging me 30p per KWH (up more than 50% from when I bought the car), which translates to about 10p per mile.

The tyres are pretty good, but wear fairly quickly, and you are talking ballpark £1k worth of tyre for every 10k miles, or 10p a mile. So all in, 20p per mile (forgetting brakes, suspension wear and tear and that type of thing which will come down the line at some point)

At £7.50 a gallon diesel right now, a 60mpg car costs 12.5p per mile and tyre wear will be dependant on the car of course, but around 5p per mile on previous cars I've had. So thats 17.5p per mile and for every 10k miles, you should really be changing oil and filters (forget that long life 20k miles oil, 10k max in my book) so about £250 for every 10k miles, which brings it to 20p per mile, which is pretty much what my M3 costs me per mile.

So green/carbon footprint aside, its not as cost effective as it was when I initially bought the car. I'm sort of thinking I should maybe cash in my M3 while prices are high, and get a diesel again. My initial plan was a MY (was hoping a SR version would eventually come out) but when you look at running costs and purchase price, that 50+% increase in electric has switched the maths quite a bit.

Like many of us no doubt, it was these sort of man maths that helped me buy the M3 to begin with but those maths don't work like they used to. There is a hefty premium to buy an EV but over the long term, you get that back, and then some. Well, that used to be the case. Its not quite so simple now.

Anyone else having similar thoughts about EV running costs and considering going back to fossil fuels? I'm talking from a pure financial perspective, rather than the obvious rabbit hole of climate change, emissions etc

You must be driving very spirited. My Michelin Cross Climates still look good after 50,000 miles and I get 4 miles pre KWh. So my costs are well less 1/5 of yours. Solar helps as my electricity is about $.065/kWh.

 

[Jason71]

I should have added that I live in NI - we don't have Octopus go or anything like that. That would absolutely change the numbers for sure - 30p is x4 times Octopus go that you guys are getting so I'm paying quadruple what you guys are paying. Thats significant lol!

Have you thought about solar panels. I know the payback time used to be quoted as 10-20 years. I wonder what it is for a EV driver paying 0.30 p/kwh?

 

[Mr H]

I went to Spain once. Hired a Corsa with less brakes than a 1930’s bicycle. Complained and just got that ‘mañana‘ shrug!

They offered me a Corsa, i refused because i like to get where i'm going.....

 

[2020M3SR]

I live in NI and use economy 7 to charge my EVs. I just swapped to SSE and get 7 hours of 'cheaper' electricity - around 11p kwh. In the day its slightly more 19p kwh. I have no idea why you are paying 30p but you need to swap.

I have solar panels + battery so I can minimise the daily rate but still - you need to shop around and potentially change to economy 7 if the maths work out better....

Looks like I need to change provider and tariff, thank you. When the bills went up, I just assumed it was the same for everyone no matter what provider as its not been out of the news for months now. Even NIE, who the competition would make you believe are far too dear, even their prices are way more competitive. Only 21.76p on their website today for the non variable tariff but that economy 7 tariff looks ideal.

Just need to work out how much I've wasted this last while getting shafted!!!

 

[2020M3SR]

So anyway, I need to rip up my man maths calculations and start all over again - turns out I've been getting bent over by my electricity provider lol

Thanks for the input all

I'll sheepishly slip out of the thread now

 

[Overworked]

Power NI increased to 22p/kWh plus VAT on Jan 1 for their standard rate. Who is ripping you off?

I average 277wh/mi over the last 8000 miles and six months of winter, so nearly 4 miles per kWh. As others have said your tyre use is also excessive.

Your "man maths" needs the back of a new fag packet and show workings again!